Home Office

Cybercrime

Liz Saville Roberts: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she has taken to ensure that industry codes of practice allow users to remove compromised telephones from cloud accounts.

Victoria Atkins: The Digital Economy Act requires the Secretary of State, before issuing a code of practice, to consult social media providers to whom the code is intended.The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport are consulting on introducing a social media code of practice as part of the Internet Safety Strategy which was published on 11 October 2017.

Home Office: Travel

Andrew Gwynne: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how much her Department has spent on (a) taxis, (b) first class train tickets and (c) business class air travel in each of the last four years.

Victoria Atkins: Since the introduction of austerity measures in financial year 2009/10, the Home Office Group has significantly reduced spend on first class rail by 99 per cent in real terms to financial year 16/17. In FY09/10, the Home Office’s First Class Rail travel was £1.9m, in FY16/17 this expenditure was £19k.Spend on business class flights made by the Home Office Group has decreased from £650k in financial year 2010/11 to £240k in the latest full financial year (2016/17), a decrease of 63 per cent.There has been a continued drive to reduce spend on first class rail travel across the group. First class rail travel may be booked if there are no standard class facilities available, and to accommodate staff with disabilities or other special needs requirements.

Immigration: Personal Records

Mr David Lammy: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department's Case Information Database retains copies of (a) landing cards and (b) microfilm numbers on an electronic database in cases where the Landing Card Unit destroyed physical landing cards.

Caroline Nokes: Physical landing cards are not retained. These are routinely disposed of once statistical and biographic data has been recorded.Landing cards that were previously scanned onto microfiche, are now scanned onto PDF format and DVD. The statistical and biographic data is then entered onto the Home Office’s Case Information Database. Scanned data is retained for 15 years.

Immigration: Caribbean

Steve McCabe: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, on what date the decision was taken to destroy the landing cards of Windrush migrants stored in her Department's offices in Croydon; and which Minister signed off that decision.

Caroline Nokes: No decision was taken to destroy ‘Windrush migrant’ information specifically and records were not categorised as being related to a ‘Windrush migrant’ or the ‘Windrush generation’. Any Windrush papers would have been destroyed in line with the retention and disposal periods set for the wider records collections in which they were located.

Drugs: Misuse

Jeff Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of drug consumption rooms on tackling (a) HIV infection rates and (b) drug-related deaths.

Victoria Atkins: The Government has no plans to introduce drug consumption rooms (DCRs). We are not prepared to sanction or condone activity that promotes the illicit drugs trade and the harms that trade causes to individuals and communities.The Government’s report, Drugs: International Comparators (2014), notes that DCRs have emerged in some countries as a response to public health risks associated with open drug scenes, most often to address acute problems specific to a local area. There is some evidence for their effectiveness in reducing health risks for drug users in those particular contexts, however the UK does not experience public drug taking on the same scale.DCRs are controversial and there remain legal and ethical issues for agencies involved. Furthermore, there is no legal framework for the provision of DCRs in the UK.

Slavery: Children

Mr Barry Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps his Department is taking to tackle orphanage trafficking as a form of modern slavery.

Victoria Atkins: Any form of modern slavery is unacceptable and the UK is committed to taking firm action to tackle all types of exploitation.Her Majesty’s Government is concerned about reports of child trafficking in orphanages overseas. The Modern Slavery Act 2015 recognises child trafficking as a form of modern slavery and includes a provision to allow for the prosecution of British nationals who commit modern slavery offences internationally.The Home Office is working closely with civil society, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Department for International Development to gather further evidence of orphanage trafficking overseas. Where there is clear evidence of the role of UK tourists or donors abetting child trafficking in orphanages overseas, we will consider the most effective action to take.

Drugs: Misuse

Carolyn Harris: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment he has made of the potential effect on drug-related fatalities of drug safety testing at (a) festivals, (b) nightclubs and (c) other large gatherings of young people.

Victoria Atkins: Drugs are illegal where there is scientific and medical evidence that they are harmful to health and society. The possession of any amount of a controlled drug is a criminal offence and the supply of a controlled drug is an even more serious offence. No illegal drug-taking can be assumed to be safe and there is no safe way to take them.The Government’s approach remains clear: we must prevent illicit drug use in our communities and help those dependent on drugs to recover, while ensuring our drug laws are enforced. In relation to drug testing at festivals, chief constables are responsible for operational decisions in their local area and we are not standing in their way. We are exploring with the National Police Chiefs’ Council whether their advice on this issue needs to be clarified.

British Nationality: Windrush Generation

Sir Mark Hendrick: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many applications for free citizenship have been made by people of the Windrush generation in Preston.

Caroline Nokes: The specific information requested is not routinely collated or published geographical area by the Home Office.To break down the number of applications in the level of detail requested would be overly resource intensive.As set out in the Home Secretary’s letter to the HASC on 10 July, the next HASC update on the work of the Taskforce will provide further detail on those applying under the Windrush Scheme and granted citizenship.

British Nationality: Windrush Generation

Sir Mark Hendrick: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many live applications there are for the Windrush free citizenship scheme.

Caroline Nokes: The number of live applications is subject to frequent change. As set out in the Home Secretary’s letter to the HASC on 10 July, the next HASC update will provide further detail on those applying under the Windrush Scheme and decisions made.

Human Trafficking

Vernon Coaker: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many of the 5,145 potential victims referred into the National Referral Mechanism in 2017 were placed in safe house accommodation.

Vernon Coaker: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many of the 5,145 potential victims referred into the National Referral Mechanism in 2017 received no outreach or safe house support.

Victoria Atkins: All potential victims of Modern Slavery who receive a positive Reasonable Grounds decision are entitled to receive comprehensive support through the National Referral Mechanism.Adult potential victims must consent to receive support, which can either take the form of safe house accommodation or outreach support if they already have safe and secure accommodation.In England and Wales, adults are supported through the Victim Care Contract, and in 2017, 79% of adult potential victims were in receipt of outreach support, while 21% were supported in safe house accommodation. Regardless of where an individual is accommodated, they receive advocacy and signposting to specialist support (the usual form of words). Some potential victims do not consent to receive support.Of the 5,145 potential victims who were referred into the National Referral Mechanism, 2,118 were children, who are provided with support by the local authority, and therefore do not enter the victim care contact.

Antisocial Behaviour

Grahame Morris: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what powers are available to local authorities to require (a) organisations and (b) individuals to (i) clear and (ii) tidy industrial sites where anti-social behaviour is having a detrimental effect on local residents.

Victoria Atkins: The Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014 provides the police and local authorities with a range of flexible powers that they can use to tackle anti-social and nuisance behaviour.This includes the Community Protection Notice which can be used by police, councils and designated housing providers to stop anti-social behaviour by individuals or businesses, that is having a detrimental effect on the community’s quality of life. A Community Protection Notice can include requirements to stop causing the nuisance and/ or to do specified things to ‘make good’. It is for local agencies to decide when it is appropriate to make use of these powers.

Ministry of Justice

Guardianship (Missing Persons) Act 2017

Ms Harriet Harman: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, when he plans to commence the provisions of the Guardianship (Missing Persons) Act 2017.

Lucy Frazer: The Government intends to bring the Guardianship (Missing Persons) Act 2017 into force in July 2019.